For the remainder of the post, the ThankYou Points I will be referencing are those earned by the Prestige or Premier.

ThankYou Points transfer to 14 airlines and 1 hotel loyalty programs

Airline Partners

Cathay Pacific

Avianca

EVA Air

Etihad

Flying Blue (Air France/KLM)

Garuda Indonesia

Malaysia

Qantas

Qatar

Singapore Airlines

Thai Airways

Virgin Atlantic

JetPrivilege

JetBlue

Hotel Partners

Hilton Honors

When it Will Be Worth it To Transfer ThankYou Points to JetBlue

The cost of a TrueBlue award is tied to the cash price of the ticket, so this means there aren’t “sweetspots” as there is no award chart. The revenue cost of a ticket fluctuates and that affects the award price, so whether or not it’s worth transferring your Ultimate Rewards to JetBlue will depend on the day. For reference, in general the points tend to be worth between 1.3 and 1.4 cents a piece. I often find that JetBlue has really good award prices in comparison to competitors though, and for a superior product to boot with free Wifi on all flights, better snacks, and comfier and bigger seats.

JetBlue’s Mint Class is the nicest Business Class experience on a transcontinental flight in the United State by far, and if you book it in time you can get one of the enclosed suites (there are four in each Mint Class on rows 2 and 4, and they are first come first serve).

If you have JetBlue points earned outright from one of their Barclaycard co-branded credit cards, never transfer ThankYou Points–or any other transferrable point currency–to JetBlue unless necessary to top off your balance for a specific award. Transferrable points are always going to be more valuable than JetBlue points as JetBlue points can only be redeemed on JetBlue flights. No matter how you value your points and miles, more options always equals more value.

So what if you have various points that transfer to JetBlue?

American Express Membership Rewards also transfer to JetBlue, but at a worse 250:200 ratio. I don’t think under any circumstance would it be worth using your Membership Rewards instead of ThankYou Points for a JetBlue flight, especially considering that I value Membership Rewards at 2 cents each and ThankYou Points at 1.8 cents each.

As mentioned above, Ultimate Rewards also transfer 1,000:1,000 as ThankYou Points do. But I value Ultimate Rewards more than ThankYou Points, 2 cents vs. 1.8 cents each, so I probably wouldn’t use those either. If you have the Sapphire Reserve though, it’s worth doing a little math since you can redeem Ultimate Rewards earned by the Reserve for 1.5 cents each through Chase’s travel portal. You’ll want to compare…

how many Ultimate Rewards it would cost to redeem your points at 1.5 cents each through the Chase travel portal on a JetBlue cash ticket, and…

how many ThankYou Points it would cost to transfer them to TrueBlue and redeem on the same JetBlue flight (but as an award)

All that being said, you wouldn’t be squeezing peak value out of either those point types–Ultimate Rewards nor ThankYou Points–by transferring to JetBlue (or redeeming through the Chase travel portal for that matter). But not everyone uses their points for premium cabin/international flights, which are the kind of redemptions that contribute to transferrable points’ peak potential value. Long story short, if you’re not saving up for a big award and you want to cover the cost of a JetBlue flight with points, pick your least valued one (between Ultimate Rewards and ThankYou Points) and go for it. For me that’s ThankYou Points.

Bottom Line

You can now transfer ThankYou Points earned by your Citi Prestige or Citi ThankYou Premier card to JetBlue at a rate of 1,000 to 1,000. If you have ThankYou Points earned by a ThankYou Preferred card, their new transfer rate to JetBlue is 1,000 to 800.

Fast Track to ThankYou Points

The Citi ThankYou Premier card has a record-high 60k sign-up bonus right now for spending $4,000 on your new card within three months. It’s also got killer category bonuses for a $95/year card (and no annual fee the first year): 3x on travel and gas, 2x on restaurants and entertainment.

Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.

The comments section below is not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all questions are answered.

Sarah Page Maxwell became a miles nerd after moving her base to Buenos Aires and beginning a transient lifestyle that would be otherwise too expensive without miles and points. In addition to travel, her other passions include hot sauce, yoga, and her boston terrier Omar.

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Editorial Disclosure

Content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers. These responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered. For more information or to see the MileValue Privacy Policy, click here.

Sarah Page Maxwell is a miles aficionado and avid traveler, born in Virginia, raised in North Carolina, and currently based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has earned and redeemed millions of miles for herself and others. Traveling for free, the 29-year-old has been to 20+ countries, making sure to catch as many sunsets in each that she can.

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MileValue is the only miles-and-points blog that thinks systematically about the value of your miles and how to maximize that value!

Many of the credit card offers that appear on this site are from credit card companies from which MileValue.com receives compensation if you are approved. Compensation impacts placement of cards on the credit card page and banner placement, but does not on the articles posted on MileValue.com. This site does not include all credit card offers available in the marketplace.

Many of the credit card offers that appear on this site are from credit card companies from which MileValue.com receives compensation if you are approved. Compensation impacts placement of cards on the credit card page and banner placement, but does not on the articles posted on MileValue.com. This site does not include all credit card offers available in the marketplace.